Lasorda, Offerman Head Misfit Team

Sports forum - Commentary

In This Age Of Overpaid Ballplayers, It's Time To Recognize Those Who Couldn't Catch A Cold, Hit The Sack Or Pitch A Fit.

September 20, 1992|By Russ White of The Sentinel Staff

Enough of the talk about baseball's major award winners. For every guy who pitches well enough to be a Cy Young candidate, hits enough to be an MVP or fields well enough to earn a Gold Glove, there are a slew of hapless players who can't do anything right.

Let's not ignore these lads any longer. Why not establish some awards for the guys who for some reason or another didn't get the job done this year. With the recognition, maybe the new Florida Marlins or Colorado Rockies will give them jobs in 1993.

But for the time being, here's to the losers:

National League Sigh Young Award for bad pitching. For a while, Philadelphia rookie Kyle Abbott seemed to have this thing sewed up. Abbott, with nifty 1-13 with a 5.06 earned-run average, has started 18 games and not finished once. He leads the Phillies with 18 home runs allowed.

Should Abbott blow the award by winning again - heaven forbid pitching a complete game - Anthony Young of the New York Mets is in hot pursuit. Young lost his 13th Thursday. He's 2-13. What kills him is the fact he saved 13 games as a reliever.

Dave Righetti of the San Francisco Giants deserves a boo, too. He's 1-6, has an ERA of more than 5 with only 3 saves. This kind of relief work earned Dandy Dave four starts.

National League LVP (least valuable player). What's with the Cubs? They oppose realignment of the NL but tolerate Hector Villanueva. He has hit .160 for them, with only one hit in the last month. The Marlins and Rockies probably won't even bite.

Pedro Guerrero of the Cardinals probably will make as much and accomplish less than anyone. A fine player on his last legs, Guerrero has played in 42 games, hitting one home run and driving in 16.

Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia has some awful numbers, too: .219 average, 2 homers, 19 RBIs in 105 games. For sheer consistency, Iron Mike is our LVP. And how about the night Iron Mike used his mask trying to stop a wild pitch. Ouch.

National League Iron Gloves for horrible fielding. Shortstop Jose Offerman has mishandled 40 chances for the Dodgers. Made his 38th and 39th on one play.

Teammate Lenny Harris has 25, helping the Dodgers well on their way to making 175 or more flubs this year. Offerman and Harris obviously are in a league of their own.

National League Mis-Manager of the year. Who else but Tommy Lasorda? Some folks actually thought the Dodgers would be contenders. The Lakers play more games than either Eric Davis or Darryl Strawberry have played for Team LA-sorda. The two made $7.35 million and combined for 10 home runs and 57 RBIs. Lasorda can't - and refuses to - take all the blame for the Dodgers' fall from grace. He berated several writers who suggested so.

American League Sigh Young. There's always a guy named Young in line for this award. How about Boston's Matt Young, 0-4 with an ERA of about 5 runs a game? Walt Terrell is 6-10 with a 5.28 for the Tigers. He gets 5 runs a game and still hasn't won. Dave Otto is 5-9 for the Indians with a 7.06 ERA. If he went to Colorado, he could get it into double figures for sure.

Best attitude for a loser goes to Chuck 4-12 Finley of the Angels. ''We were just an elephant and a clown short of a circus,'' he said one night after a 14-2 loss to Oakland. Quick, send in the clowns.

American League LVP. Poor Jack Clark, who has gone bankrupt on and off the field, is first in this line. Boston expected a little more than 5 homers, 33 RBIs and a .210 batting average from Jack. He has 87 strikeouts in 260 at-bats. Teammate Tim Naehring, he of great promise, has hit .199, with 2 homers and 8 RBIs in 55 games. Dan Pasqua of the White Sox may like mile-high Denver next year. He has hit .200 with 3 home runs and 21 RBIs in more than 200 at-bats.

American League Iron Gloves. Gregg Jefferies brought his glove to Royals Stadium this year, and it has stuck out like a sore thumb - 23 errors. Angels rookie Gary DiSarcina has 23 also. Indians shortstop Mark Lewis has 24.

To the AL's credit, even the worst fielders in this league are nowhere nearly as shaky as Offerman of the Dodgers.

American League Mis-Manager. Butch Hobson looked so much like actor Paul Newman, the Red Sox thought they had it made when they canned good old Joe Morgan. Boston would have been better off with someone who looked like Alfred E. Neuman. What they worry?